Burn it all down

A plan by the Trump administration to change the rules under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act could devastate the population of threatened and endangered species and accelerate their decline across North America, a former US wildlife official has warned.

Dan Ashe, a former US Fish and Wildlife Service Director, told the The Associated Press news agency news agency that for years the law's threat of prosecution served as "a brake on industry" and had probably saved billions of birds.

[...]

"It will be catastrophic."

[...]

Industry sources and pollutants kill an estimated 450 million to 1.1 billion birds annually, out of an overall 7.2 billion birds in North America, according to recent studies by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Under the 50-year practice in the migratory bird law, criminal penalties are being used to put pressure on companies into taking measures to prevent unintentional bird deaths.

The Trump administration dismissed Ashe's dire prediction, contending companies will continue to avoid bird deaths voluntarily.

  alJazeera

And that, we all know, is bullshit. Also, if companies are concerned enough to do that, what does it matter if the law is there? There's only one reason to remove it: because it's in their way.

The Trump administration's proposal follows longstanding pressure from oil companies, utilities and other industries.

[...]

The 1918 migratory bird law was passed after many US bird populations were destroyed by hunting and poaching, much of it for feathers for women's hats.

Over the past half-century, the law was also applied against companies that failed to prevent foreseeable bird deaths.

However, the Trump administration says deaths of birds that fly into oil pits, mining sites, telecommunications towers, wind turbines and other hazards should be treated as accidents not subject to prosecution. And an Interior Department proposal would cement that into federal regulation.

What happened to "these ugly windmills are killing thousands of beautiful birds!"?

State officials and wildlife advocates who are suing the administration in federal court say birds are already being harmed under actions allowed by a 2017 Trump administration legal memo that signalled the rule change.

Most notable was the destruction last northern autumn of nesting grounds for 25,000 shorebirds in Virginia to make way for a road and tunnel project. State officials had ended conservation measures for the birds after federal officials advised such measures were voluntary under the new interpretation of the law.

The move to relax the bird law, combined with Trump's relaxations of the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act puts birds and their habitat at greater risk.

[...]

The American Petroleum Institute suggested in a regulatory filing: "The birds themselves are the actors, colliding or otherwise interacting with industrial structures."

Jesus Tapdancing Christ! (h/t Kevin Kruse). Perhaps the birds should be fined!

This administration will be the death of the planet.

UPDATE:

NB: actual birds in this case

Just like the White House.

The agency released a request for information (RFI) this week seeking possible solutions to the approximately 300 vultures roosting on the CBP radio towers at Kingsville, Texas. One solution includes netting to deter the birds.

  The Hill

I bet the Trump brothers have another solution.

Vultures are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the USDA notes they are known for nesting in massive numbers.

Trump will have that taken care of with an executive order and then turn his sons loose.

"They will often defecate and vomit from their roost onto buildings below that house employees and equipment," the official said. "There are anecdotes about birds dropping prey from a height of three-hundred feet, creating a terrifying and dangerous situation for those concerned."

They know. I'm rooting for the vultures.

As an aside, this article calls a group of vultures a kettle.  I've never heard that before.  I also recently learned that a group of wild turkeys is called a rafter.  That's easier to imagine the origin of than kettle.

But, according to Wikipedia, kettle might not be the proper word. "A kettle is a term that birders use to describe a group of birds wheeling and circling in the air." It might be more appropriate to call them a committee.

I wonder if the vultures in the White House also urinate on themselves to keep cool.  #PeeTape

Featherfest

Galveston Island celebrates the flocking of migratory birds every year with the annual Featherfest activities. I don't know if the birds I've seen the last few days are migratory, but it's the first time I've caught sight of either. I've been throwing seed out all winter and saw some beautiful European starlings a few months ago, but mostly little sparrows and the ever-present pigeons and grackles. The grackles have gone elsewhere, but the pigeons gather at 7:30 am every morning on the wires and eaves, and as soon as I walk out the door, they come to the yard. (Sometimes I think they follow me to work. :-))

At any rate, yesterday morning I saw a purple finch in the palm tree by my back steps.  It was tres jolie.  He looked like a little sparrow that had been dyed red for Easter.  I didn't have my camera, so here's an internet picture:

I also saw a little brown bird with a yellow mask.  I tried Googling that and didn't find it.  Google returned mostly small yellow birds with black masks.  I found this:

but that isn't it.

I tried looking up all birds with yellow, and it's possible that it was a hooded warbler, although I didn't notice yellow on the belly, and the mask was very neatly drawn, and I think had a white ring around it.  I saw another small yellow bird this morning, but fleetingly, and its underbelly was indeed yellow, but I couldn't see its face.  I thought immediately of a finch, and it may have been.

Anyway, the bird in question had a mask like this hooded warbler, but the bird was otherwise all buff colored.  The internet pictures of the female show a similar bird, without the black head, but still looking quite yellow.  The immatures don't seem to have a distinct mask.  So....I don't know.

A couple of years ago about this time, my sister and I watched a small flock of screaming-brilliant blue birds in the yard where I was living.  I think we decided they were indigo buntings.  It was more secluded than where I am now, and I'm not expecting to see them again, but that would be a real treat.  It was once. 

Just, you know, in case you care to know.